Handbags at 20 paces after LVMH makes secret raid

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The French financial regulator is to investigate whether the world’s biggest
luxury goods group breached market rules when it built a 17.1 per cent stake
in its smaller rival Hermès in a secret raid.

In the latest twist in what has been dubbed the Gallic handbag war,
Jean-Pierre Jouyet, chairman of the Financial Markets Authority (AMF), said
that he had ordered an inquiry into claims that LVMH had failed to comply
with regulations on disclosure.

Mr Jouyet also said that officials would scrutinise movements in Hermès’s
share prices in the days preceding LVMH’s announcement of its holding.